DINT #61 - Dear Google, I Am Not a Gorilla
... and other things the tech company should already know.
This issue includes a free preview for our unpaid subscribers. Paid subscribers have access to the entire article below. Enjoy! - L
But first, today’s headlines:
AI-Powered Storage: Hype or Honest Truth?
Found something interesting on the news wires today. The AI-powered storage market will hit $145.2 billion in value by 2030. It’s smart storage that moves data where it needs to be at the right time for the right user. Major players in the space are Dell, AMD, and Cisco. We’re keeping an eye on developments here since the AI-powered storage market stands at a $21.46 billion value today. Industry research firm SNS Insider sees a 27% compound annual growth rate for the market between 2023 and 2030. Right now, data storage requires strategy, projections, and re-locating data sets. If AI-powered storage lives up to its promise of automating all of those functions, then the valuation could be spot on.
Private Equity Firms Duke It Out to Buy Compass Datacenters for a Cool $5.5M
Compass is up for sale apparently. DigitalBridge and Brookfield are duking it out for the data center firm to the tune of $5.5 billion. Compass is privately held so we have little to any transparent data on operations, financial projections, or expectations for future growth. We do know Compass is in the middle of a difficult rezoning fight in Prince William County, Virginia. We referred to this fight in last week’s DINT:
Reddit Roundup: For Data Center Operators the AI Hype Is Real – Hardware, Power, and Cooling Please!
For small to mid-sized data center operators, AI isn’t hype. Data center techs are seeing non-stop deployments of Nvidia A100s (GPU) and decommissioning of legacy hardware. The advent of AI makes power and cooling an even bigger issue than before in the data center space. Liquid cooling appears to be the right play but won’t gain much traction until 2024 (late 2024).
Source: Data center redditors who know
Are you seeing this, too?
Cyber Summer Program Gets Underrepresented Youth a Start in Cybersecurity
The U.S. National Science Foundation devoted $1.5 million in funding to the JumpStart Into Cybersecurity Summer Program, run by SANS and Sinclair College. The online program is open to students from marginalized groups.
Apply Here: JumpStart Into Cybersecurity
Local Tech Diversity Efforts Gain Steam
We found three organizations putting money behind tech entrepreneurship for the underrepresented in local communities in the U.S: Philadelphia’s PHL: Most Diverse Tech Hub initiative, Detroit’s Black Tech Saturday, and Amazon’s AWS Skills Centers with locations in Seattle and Virginia.
Feature Article
Why Google’s 2015 AI Controversy Continues to Haunt Its AI Efforts
In 2015 Google launched a solution to a common problem for its users: identifying/tagging photos stored in the cloud. Usually, to free up space on phones, users set up direct uploads to Google Drive from their Android devices. Those photos add up and well, when you want to access the perfect one to show your friends, it’s tough.
In one of the firm’s first forays into AI, Google launched a stand-along Photos app. The system identifies and tags photos for users’ searching convenience. All was going well. That is, until software developer Jacky Alciné exposed Google’s lack of inclusivity and how that failing causes the firm difficulties a full eight years later.
Alciné found the system identified darker-skinned people as gorillas.
Some of my readers may identify Google’s error as an honest mistake that happens in the natural course of developing cutting edge technology. There’s history behind the impact of this error. But first, a bit of context:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to DINT to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.